Monday, December 24, 2007

No matter what holidays you choose to celebrate (or not celebrate) at this time of year, I hope you're feeling happy. And, if not, there's always the TBS 24-hour marathon of "A Christmas Story" starting tonight at 8, and that movie's good fun for Christians and non-Christians alike. (Even Ken Levine agrees.)

I'll be back on Friday with my two best of 2007 columns, and I may also announce the first entry in the How To Survive The Strike By Watching Canceled Shows That Were Awesome series.

14 comments:

Viewing note for those who've been avoiding watching the two "The Wire" shows (review and preview) for fear of spoilage: You've probably already read everything that's revealed, and you don't want to miss seeing and hearing Alan, do you? On the other hand, you might want to throw up every time Joe Klein talks about great journalism, pretending that he practices it.

"The Wire: The Last Word" and "The Wire Odyssey" can be found at http://www.hbo.com/thewire/chronicles/index.shtml?ntrack_para1=feat_main_text if you haven't yet figured out how to find them with the DVR ;-)

I just started watching The Wire about 2 months ago and I flew through all 4 seasons before Christmas. To say I can't f*$#ing wait for season 4 would be an understatement. "McNulty is drinking again" - what a great promo!

Alan, are you not going to be writing about "Life on Mars" after all??

Karen, that had been my intention, but some holiday stuff got in the way of watching the most recent episodes, and I'm finding myself oddly ambivalent about the show all of a sudden. I'm sure there's good stuff coming up that I'll have to get to eventually, but I was halfway through the IRA bombing episode when I began to feel like, Sam's anachronistic knowledge aside, this wasn't too different from all the traditional cop procedurals I rarely blog about.

You're right about "Life on Mars." It's a procedural cop show with only a few token anachronisms thrown in. They really aren't taking advantage of the possibilities for a time travel show, choosing instead to throw in a couple of remarks about Harrison Ford in "The Fugitive" or Margaret Thatcher. Sam, smart as he is, could try and communicate with his future self and do some of the neat thing Kevin McKidd tried to do while in the past. But, no. It's just a procedural with a gimmick.

The Wire: Odyssey is not on the HBO website yet. When you click the "Play" button it just shows a small 32-second promo for it.

Btw Alan, have you seen the show "Epitafios"? It aired on HBO a few years and is about a serial killer...it is set in Argentina. It is in Spanish so you have to watch it with subtitles. I just saw the first episode and I think it's not bad.

I wasn't actually so crazy about the IRA bombing episode, because I thought it wasn't a particularly interesting episode in itself, despite Sam's self-doubt over the keenness of his judgment. I did think it got a lot better this past week, with the "Beauvoir ladies" plot line, and his plonker colleague Chris' recognition that, somehow, women seem to like Sam (evidently, because he's the only non-Neanderthal man in Manchester).

I don't think, though, that the anachronisms are the most compelling aspect of the show--I'm just curious about where it's going, especially with the introduction of some actual, phoneable person in Hyde who appears to know that Sam is unstuck in time. I'm curious to see how they're going to resolve why Sam has ended up in 1973, and how Sam's budding feelings for Annie are going to reconcile with his feelings for the girlfriend who was kidnapped by the murderer back in 2006.

Mostly, though, I really want to read you writing about a television show that I'm watching!